1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image forming method and an image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming method of discharging an aqueous pigment ink on the surface of a recording medium followed by applying an after-treatment liquid is known.
Recently, the inkjet recording has been required to form images like conventional offset printing images on coated papers for commercial printing.
However, since the coated papers for commercial printing are difficult to absorb water, images having good antifriction cannot be formed.
Japanese published unexamined application No. JP-2010-115854-A discloses a method of printing images applying a color ink, a resin ink and a reaction ink by an inkjet recording method using an aqueous ink set on a recording medium having no or low ink absorbability. The aqueous ink set includes a color ink including a colorant, a resin ink including resin particles without a colorant, and a reaction ink including a reactant aggregating structural components of the color ink and the resin ink. The color ink includes a water-insoluble colorant, a water-soluble or -insoluble resin, a water-soluble solvent and a surfactant. The resin ink includes a water-soluble resin solvent and thermoplastic resin particles insoluble in water but compatible with the water-soluble resin solvent, and the content of the resin particles in the resin ink is not less than the content of the colorant in the color ink. The reaction ink includes a reactant selected from multivalent metallic salts, and polyarylamine and its derivatives; and a surfactant. Further, the method includes a drying process during and/or after printing.
However, the method is unable to form images having good fixability and anti-blocking on the coated papers for commercial printing.
Because of these reasons, a need exists for an image forming method and an image forming apparatus capable of forming images having good fixability and anti-blocking on the coated papers for commercial printing.